Group items tagged

This article deals with website design and what to make note of when designing, as most first-time visitors will give you less than five seconds to "wow" them, making the aesthetics a vital part of reeling in customers. The website must be both visually appealing to your targeted demographic as well as communicate important things to know.

This article covers website aesthetics. Clara Teoh advises web designers to design their websites with: the preferences of their target demographic in mind, the right tone  to focus on designing the layout of the website to capture the attention of users by choosing appropriate colours and  correctly sized buttons. She also says to compare your site using other successful websites as benchmarks. She goes on to say that site aesthetics even affect variables like conversion rates and sales for businesses.  

This article looks at the power that people have on social media and how easily it can rally people together for a cause. It uses an air pollution problem in Beijing to demonstrate how awareness of different issues affecting us on a global scale can spread.

This blogger looks at the different ways to utilize word press and how to optimize the site. This could be helpful to skilled word press users to help them find new tools they can use. It also is useful to new users as it gives step by step tips on how to operate the site.

The article provides a commentary on social media. It gives insight on the different types of people - the demographics - that use all the various social media that is out there and relevant. It sorts out the different age groups, ethnicities, genders among other things like the way they are using it - creation vs. curators. One can also find other articles on the same website that link to other various information relevant to the topic at hand. There is also a longer but more in-depth analysis on the usage of social media done by the same group of people here (http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED525056.pdf).

Is there a way of predicting if content will go viral? This article, published by Forbes magazine, written by Roger Wu, attributes the viral success of a certain types of media such as videos, images and sound clips into two categories: the "Roadblock Effect" or the "Stagger Effect." Wu explains that viral content can be divided into these two categories and can therefore be used to determine whether or not content will go viral.

Burstein's article looks into the concept of virality from a marketing standpoint and examines how to use social media in order to market a product or brand in a way that it will reach a large audience and reach a level of virality. Burstein says that although you do you know have full control of whether your message will reach viral status, there are ways in which to encourage virality. For example, Burstein explains getting involved with your audience and being engaged with social media outlets. As well, he advises marketers not to come off as "salesly" or pushy, and to instead recognize the needs of your audience.

This interesting article discusses the advantages in using social media to fight crime and solve cases. Whilst originally social media appeared more risky than helpful, police have discovered using social media is the fastest, most effective way to get warnings out and help find missing persons, and one of the best ways people can communicate with them without feeling threatened.

An article that discusses social media and how it can be a useful tool for a global organization/company that crosses at least one national or regional boundary. Provides tips on how to get their message heard, as well as provide the top used social media websites in different countries.

This article is useful for individuals looking to edit their videos effectively. The tips provided are to guide a video editor in making the best edits possible. Before editing a video, it is a good idea to look for some tips to help you start well before messing up. Those 10 simple tips will be a good read before you start your editing session. This topic goes back to our lecture on how to edit videos.

This article refers to the lecture and assignment of the power of social media tools to represent a brand or organization. Furthermore, this article talks about the four big social media platforms, being LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. These social media tools are great for commercial use; to connect and gather interest from the public. It touches base with individuals on an almost personal perspective, as the platforms talk directly to an individual or certain group. This article emphasizes why these 4 well known platforms are being used by marketing teams and organizations themselves.

This link refers to a bunch of audio story telling recording of different individuals. By listening to a few if them, you will be able to get a feel of how an individual can bring life to whatever they are talking about with the use of different voices and tone if voice. Also, the use if pauses and sounds are meaningful in some cases. This link greatly helps an individual with making their own narrative story, as we had to do in the begging of the semester.

This blog post elaborates upon the possible implications of the continuous technological convergence occurring in society.  He touches on negative issues such as the growing dependence on technology such as cellphones, which have only been around for a number of years.  He also explains positives for advertisers and entrepreneurs such as the ability to reach a global audience at next to no fee.  I thought this article would be relevant because our course similarly reflects upon the impacts of media on our lives as citizens, students and consumers.

This article could be helpful for anyone hoping to work in communications or as an entrepreneur in the future.  It thoroughly explains how companies make money by using free social medias including Facebook and twitter (even providing visual examples).  Due to the increase of people online, and on social networking websites these tips can largely increase profitability and communication clarity of any public company.  They may also help with the media episodes project whilst trying to create and market social media to a specific audience.   

This website provides advice on what colour combinations go well together when creating a website template. It contains sample templates of webpages.

This article highlights 5 golden rules for effective web design. The article describes how to make typefaces work to your advantage, how to choose colour palettes, the advantages of correctly sized graphics, how to include space and headings, and the importance of consistency in design.

This article discusses the pros and cons of the current lifestyle we live in a social-mediated world. People are learning new ways to "speak" with shorter-slanged words, and more concisely; and even using photos to communicate with others (through photo sharing platforms). Users are also over sharing their private lives with the world on social platforms, not realizing that almost anyone can see and read what they are putting out there.

This link is to a website on Mashable.com where there is a very cool YouTube video on augmented reality.  The clip talks about an App called Augment, where you can virtually see an object placed in any environment.  The app takes online shopping to a whole new level.  It is a very interesting video and following the video is a more in depth description of the app. 

Vancouver artist, Samantha Ravndahl is accusing hip-hop star, Lil' Kim of stealing her photo and using it to promote and profit her new album, Dead Girl Walking. First posted on Ravndahl's personal Instagram account, the stolen image is of Ravndahl wearing an original zombie makeup design. A coincidentally identical image was later found on Lil' Kim's new album cover, with Lil Kim's name and copyright notice on the image. Their dispute on copyright and intellectual property rights has yet to be resolved.

An article contrasting all that we've been studying about intellectual property rights, accusing Hollywood to be encouraging illegal downloading. The article explains how Hollywood has learned to work with the cards they were given; instead fighting our accessibility to download, Hollywood is teaming up with streaming platforms to give us movies without forcing audiences to pay per video. In attempts to make some profit, the price for music has been lowered to $1 (so we'll be less hesitant to buy it), and TV shows have teamed up with streaming sites like Hulu, who makes their money from ads. Even though there may be many who don't want to pay for entertainment anymore, there are ways around it: whether it be the easy way, or the legal way.

Creative Commons many not be as gracious as we think. The contract between content creators and users are not always understood by both, and may generate issues in the future when using another person's work without giving proper credit.